APA Style: Formatting Short & Long Quotations in the Text

(1.) Short Quotations 

• a. are less than 40 words, 
• b. are introduced with a signal phrase that includes the author's last name followed by the year of publication, 
• c. end with a page number, 

Example: 
Shively and Yerrick (2014) claim that students in their study "... wished they had been exposed to alternatives earlier and that too much traditional teaching drives students’ motivation for learning downwards" (p. 10).

(2.) Long Quotations 

• a. are longer than 40 words, 
• b. should be in a free-standing block of typewritten lines, 
• c. are not enclosed by quotation marks, 
• d. start on a new line, 
• e. are indented 1/2 inch from the left margin, 
• f. are double-spaced, 
• g. are cited, parenthetically, after the closing punctuation mark, 

Example: 

Writing in his book, Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, (Creswell, 2014), maintains that,

• Just because a problem exists and an author can clearly identify the issue does not mean that the researcher can or should investigate it. You can research a problem if you have access to participants and research sites as well as time, resources, and skills needed to study the issue. You should research a problem if the study of it potentially contributes to educational knowledge or adds to the effectiveness of practice. (p. 61)